August 30, 2006

Government bows down to moral panic

United Kingdom: The government has confirmed that it plans to make the possession of violent pornography an offence in response to a moral panic over the killing of Jane Longhurst by a man said to be obsessed with images of women being strangled. That man won an appeal against his conviction in the House of Lords last month.

As you might expect, many religious groups were involved in lobbying the government to change the law this way. The proposed new law would ban pornographic images which are also "acts that appear to be life threatening or are likely to result in serious, disabling injury", plus necrophilia and bestiality, with exceptions for documentary films, news and works of art. BDSM organisations such as The Spanner Trust are worried that such a law will serve to criminalise interest in consensual, but minority, sexual practices.

Everyone supporting the proposed legislation seems to agree that it will cut violent crime, but this seems unlikely and recent research suggests that it might even increase it. Anthony D'Amato of the Northwestern University School of Law recently published his findings on the link between access to pornography and rape. In particular, he was interested in the rape figures since porn became widely available on the internet. His statistics might surprise some: he found that a rise in access to porn correlated with a dramatic reduction in the incidence of rape. In his discussion of why this might be, he refers to the Reagan Commission on Pornography's conclusions and what might have happened if they were right:

For if they had been right that exposure to pornography leads to an increase in social violence, then the vast exposure to pornography furnished by the internet would by now have resulted in scores of rapes per day on university campuses, hundreds of rapes daily in every town, and thousands of rapes per day in every city. Instead, the Commisioners were so incredibly wrong that the incidence of rape has actually declined by the astounding rate of 85%.

But why would porn have such an effect. D'Amato thinks it's quite obvious—we're all a bunch of wankers.

Correlations aside, could access to pornography actually reduce the incidence of rape as a matter of causation? In my article I mentioned one possibility: that some people watching pornography may get it out of their system and thus have no further desire to go out and actually try it. Another possibility might be labeled the Victorian effect: the more that people covered up their bodies with clothes in those days, the greater the mystery of what they looked like in the nude. The sight of a woman’s ankle was considered shocking and erotic. But today, internet porn has thoroughly de-mystified sex. Times have changed so much that some high school teachers of sex education are beginning to show triple-X porn movies to their students in order to depict techniques of satisfactory intercourse.

I am sure there will be other explanations forthcoming as to why access to pornography is the most important causal factor in the decline of rape. Once one accepts the observation that there is a precise negative correlation between the two, the rest can safely be left to the imagination.

So, why does the government seem so keen on increasing sexual violence against women?

An impossible task in Berlin!

Germany: In what might appear to be a blatant case of religious discrimination, a Berlin family has received an eviction notice because they have been praying. But these are no ordinary prayers.

The residents at Franz Stenzer Strasse 71 in eastern Berlin say they need their sleep, Lucifer or no Lucifer. Their nocturnal rest has been disturbed by the regular high-decibel praying coming from the apartment on the second floor. There, a family's religious beliefs mandate that they raise the voices to keep the Evil One at bay.

The deafening devotion began back in October, when Pierre D., his wife and their four children moved into the apartment. They began praying four times daily at volumes that not only appeared to keep Beezelbub at bay, but alienated the other tenants, who had asked them repeatedly to keep it down.

Bargain of the Day: Cthulhu perfume

Fed up of all those happy flowery smells that the big perfume companies want you to smell of? Well, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab might have the perfect aroma for you in their A Picnic in Arkham range. Take this as an example:

CTHULHUIf I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings... It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence...

August 28, 2006

The end of the world is nigh, again

United States: There always has to be at least one person getting their end-of-the world predictions in too late to feature in the Prattle's Annual End-of-the-world post. The latest miscreant is Yisrayl Hawkins of the House of Yahweh (no relation to Prophet Yahweh), who has announced that the current crisis in the Middle East will go nuclear on September 12, 2006 in the area around the Euphrates River. How does he know? Because it's in the Bible!

Yisrayl Hawkins, well known Bible scholar and author, reports that the Bible predicts the exact date and the location that nuclear war will begin. Hawkins states that the current crisis in the Middle East will go nuclear on September 12, 2006 in the area around the Euphrates River. Calling upon his 50 years of biblical research, Hawkins correlates numerous Bible prophecies with world events to support his claim.

According to Yisrayl Hawkins, the countdown to nuclear war began with the signing of the Oslo accords on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993. He says that the book of Daniel shows that although this is a seven-year agreement, it would take fourteen years to be fully carried out, ending on October 13, 2007. He then cites prophecies in the book of Revelation showing that nuclear war would begin a year, a month and a day prior to the end of the Oslo agreement.

But Religion News Blog is on the ball, and have noticed something about this prediction: the Tribulation was originally going to start when the Oslo Agreement was signed, and the end of the world would be seven years after that date. Oops. They also note that Hawkins is not the only Prophet to fail to get his prediction in on time. The Lords' Witnesses and the True Bible Code (also auf Deutsch) have a similar nuclear annihilation forecast for a few days earlier.

We now predict a terrorist Nuclear Bomb will hit the UN plaza in Midtown Manhattan on the sabbath of 2006Elul13 (Sundown Friday September 8th to Sundown Saturday September 9th)...

We correctly predicted that the UN would lose its headship in 2006Tammuz (this being the 2nd head of the image of the Beast of Revelation 13) which gets a death stroke but then recovers. It lost its head on 2006July12 (2006Tammuz14) when Israel invaded Lebanon without a UN mandate. The UN lost credibility and lost control for a month. It lost headship over Israel for one month. But the image of the Beast does not lose two heads, it only loses one head. Each of the 7 heads of the image of the UN Beast stands for one month of military headship over the governments of the world, just as the 7 heads of the UN Beast itself each stand for one year of military headship over the governments of the world - see below. So we knew it had to regain headship in the month of Ab. It did this on August 11th by means of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed that day, and demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Now the UN will has been declare Peace and Security since the UN Peace Building Commission was added to the UN Security Council in our understanding. So sudden destruction will befall them according to 1 Thessalonians 5:3. So please leave NYC for the 2nd sabbath in September!!!

Of course, they admit they've made mistakes with this prediction, at least 11 times in the past, but they know they're right this time!

SubGenii challenge Hollywood cranks

United States: The Church of the SubGenius has issued a press release declaring they are the loopiest of all the cults:

Tom Cruise is pitching for Scientology; Madonna sings the praises of Kabbalah. Strange religious groups (or cults) are in vogue in today's Hollywood. But when it comes to bizarre rituals and crackpot beliefs, even Scientology can't hold a candle to the Church of the SubGenius, a new religious movement set to take Hollywood by storm.

The Church of the SubGenius is a popular organization often seen as a parody of religious cults, including Scientology, the Raelians, the Unification Church, and racist hate groups such as Christian Identity. The organization is widely seen as a satire that mocks organized religion, or as the church describes itself, a cynisacreligion. It was founded in 1953 by a mysterious figure named J.R. Bob Dobbs, whose smiling, pipe-smoking image has been seen worldwide in chip art, graffiti, tattoos, and rock albums from performers ranging from Devo and George Clinton to Sublime.

A number of celebrities are SubGenius ministers, including former Talking Heads singer David Byrne, Penn Jillette, Robert Anton Wilson, and Pee-Wee Herman. A number of comic book artists praise the group's teachings, including legendary "underground" artists Robert Crumb and Paul Mavrides, along with Bob Burden (whose works were recently adapted into the motion picture Mystery Men). Mavrides was art director of the 1999 documentary Grass, whichy featured Woody Harrelson and many other celebrities.

They're more honest than the other groups though:

In an interview with CNN, Church business manager Reverend Ivan Stang said, We're probably the only cult that admits we're ripping them off every day, and teaching them to enjoy it.

Want parole? Become a fundie.

United States: Fundies are unhappy that federal judges have declared that an Iowa programme which gave early release to prisoners if they converted to evangelical Christianity is illegal.

The June 2 decision in Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries was a staggering loss not just for Earley's group but perhaps for key elements of President George W. Bush's faith-based initiative as well.

U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt didn't mince words. Officials at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility had become, he wrote, far too entangled with religion by establishing a special wing for Prison Fellowship's InnerChange program. InnerChange, Pratt declared, is suffused with religion.

The religion classes are not objective inquiries into the religious life, comparable to an adult study or college course, offered for the sake of discussing and learning universal secular, civic values or truths, Pratt wrote. They are, instead, overwhelmingly devotional in nature and intended to indoctrinate InnerChange inmates into the Evangelical Christian belief system.

Vatican to retreat further into Dark Ages

Vatican City: Rumours suggest that the Pope wishes to firmly demonstrate that the Roman Catholic Church should not be taken seriously in the 21st century by endorsing pseudoscience.

There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of intelligent design taught in some US states.

It should be pointed out that Intelligent Design is not a theory, as its principal idea, that there is a creator, is not able to be falsified though empirical observation or experiment. Nor can Intelligent Design be used to predict future similar observations. As it cannot be tested, it's not even an hypothesis. No doubt they will also be endorsing astrology in future, as a valid alternative to godless astrophysics.

August 27, 2006

Always be nice to airline employees

England: A woman who made a racist comment to a member of staff at Stansted Airport has been temporarily banned from flying with easyJet. No news there, except the woman concerned is a barking mad fundie who got upset when a member of staff reacted in a perfectly natural way to an injured child.

Fiz Thomson, 55, was returning from a trip to Israel where she had been helping war victims, when she heard boarding staff at Stansted airport repeatedly exclaiming Oh, my God after a child fell and hurt herself.

She said she politely asked them to stop taking God's name in vain. She was then approached by a security official and she claims she was called a racist for remarking that her complaint would have been taken more seriously had she been Islamic.

She did not mention, though the airline did, that the member of staff she said this to was of Indian origin.

Thomson was offloaded and hired a car to drive back to Fife, being apparently unaware of the existence of the night train between Euston and Edinburgh.

Bargain of the Day: JesusOS

Ubuntu Christian Edition is evidence that Linux has become spectacularly easy to use. I will mostly let it speak for itself:

Along with the standard Ubuntu applications, Ubuntu Christian Edition includes the best available Christian software. The latest release contains GnomeSword, a top of the line Bible study program for Linux based on the Sword Project. There are several modules installed with GnomeSword including Bibles, Commentaries, and Dictionaries.

Ubuntu Christian Edition also includes fully integrated web content parental controls powered by Dansguardian. A graphical tool to adjust the parental control settings has also been developed specifically for Ubuntu Christian Edition. These features are truly what sets Ubuntu Christian Edition apart.

I suppose at least it's one market that won't ever set permissions to 666, but what have the publishers done to protect the user from all those daemons running in the background?

August 23, 2006

Situations Vacant

England: Newham Council in London is looking for a child protection officer specifically to work with cases of abused children who are believed to be posessed or witches. The council acknowledges that the number of cases is miniscule, and it's amusing the way they try and avoid mentioning that it's mostly associated with a tiny minority of evangelical Christian churches who exploit African communities in Britain. The local newspaper, on the other hand, seems to have gone out of its way to suggest that it's about witches abusing children, with phrases like witch-hunter and dedicated to rooting out child abuse linked with 'possession' and 'witchcraft'. Obviously the article was being written last night when the journalist ought to have been watching BBC2.

August 22, 2006

Today's banned video

United Kingdom: Alleged 'hard rock' music channel Scuzz TV has banned Deicide's latest video on the grounds that it might be offensive to the superstitious. The video is a classic zombie story, in which a priest is chased by zombies, and becomes one himself when he is caught. There's no explicit violence, and what special effects there are are a bit crap. Nor does it seem particularly anti-religious, unless suggesting that priests are people too is somehow derogatory.

In a statement a Scuzz representative declared that the lyrical content is religiously offensive, derogatory, and can be read as improper exploitation of any susceptibilities of the audience.

They further commented With regards the imagery itself, the inclusion of a priest or religious figure in any belief system is always a very touchy subject, but the possession of one such person, and the disparaging respect for the Christian Bible is in direct conflict with Ofcom regulations.

Fortunately, and somewhat unsurprisingly, the video itself is on YouTube, apparently put there by Deicide's record company, so you can make up your own mind about the visuals, and wonder how on earth the Scuzz TV folks know what the "lyrical content" is.

Note: If you are wondering why the Prattle hasn't been covering the attempts to get the Gay Police Association prosecuted under race hate legislation for making the perfectly fair observation that the Bible has been used to justify violence against homosexuals, it's because my source for this story, MediaWatchWatch, has unsurpassable coverage.

Satanic panics elsewhere

Norway: The Norwegian magazine Skepsis has a blog, mostly Norwegian-language articles about snake oil, UFOs and conspiracies. There are a couple of English items there, one of which is a thorough overview of Norway's own satanic panic, and the media's role in fanning the flames.

The promotion of stereotypical images of 'Satanism' in Norway started late. For a short time, the Norwegian press followed examples from England and the US in pressing claims of widespread Satanism involved in ritual abuse, but this unleashed few of the same reactions. At the same time as reports of "survivors" peaked, the phenomenon of black metal "Satanism" reached the public. Soon teenage arsonists and killers made new headlines, and contributed to another image being constructed.

The one Norwegian Satanic abuse panic resembled the American cases more than the British, centering on a kindergarten in Bjugn.

A postscript to the article notes that the police officer used as a Satanic abuse 'expert' has been arrested on suispicion of indecent exposure.

There were also panics in the Netherlands, notably Oude Pekela, leading the government to commission a report, which concluded it was all in the mind, emphasising the need for corroborating evidence. An unofficial English translation has been made.

A weird night?

England and Norway: Last night saw two separate aerial phenomena leading to UFO reports. The first was seen over Shropshire at around 9pm:

Two mystery UFOs were seen racing silently across the sky by amazed onlookers in Shropshire. The unusual bright lights were seen at about 9pm last night by people in two areas of the county.

Policeman Richard Emery saw the lights from Bayston Hill at 8.55pm. They appeared to be flying over the A49 in the Dorrington or Leebotwood area.

Security guard Robert Picken saw what he believes were the same lights above a wood just north of Craven Arms at 9pm.

Two hours later, a more dramatic phenomenon was seen over Norway (which is an hour ahead of UK time).

Observations were reported from Finnsnes to Trondheim. The main search and rescue station in northern Norway (Hovedredningssentralen Nord-Norge) reported that calls also came from crews on board ships off the northern coast, according to Dagbladet.

It was colored white, green and gold, and lights seemed to blow off it like it was a sparkler, said one observer, Andre Grønmo. It looked like it was a comet, and it was around four- to five times larger than a plane, and it flew much faster.

Slettli said others described a green, lighted ball with a tail that flew low. He said neither the Defense Department's radar station or its rocket facility at Andøya, nor the tower at Evenes airport, which serves Harstad and Narvik, had picked up the object. Slettli said calls came from people in Narvik, Vesterålen and Lofoten among other places, just before midnight on Monday.

A flurry of reports also came over the Coast Guard radio, and from an SAS flight and a Hurtigruten (Coastal Voyage) passenger ship.

Astronomers believe this sighting to have been of a meteorite, at least two of which have hit Norway recently. Knut Jørge Røed Ødegaard explained:

When they enter the earth's atmosphere and meet the air, they warm up and can light up in a second. This one's contents, the astronomer said, could explain why it seemed to change color as it flew through the night sky, which only recently has started getting dark again after the summer's midnight sun.

Researchers: Goths not dodgy

Scotland: Goths everywhere already know it, but researchers in Glasgow have shown that members of that particular subculture are no more prone to violence and crime than anyone else. Dr. Kathy Charles, a forensic psychologist at Glasgow Caledonian University led the study which led to The Herald publishing a wholly positive article and editorial on Goth, possibly the first for a newspaper anywhere.

Earlier this year a study from Glasgow University indicated that, while there is a link between gothic culture and self-mutilation, violence directed against others was comparatively uncommon. Another study, from Sussex University, maintained that, far from being a group of dangerous social misfits, many teenage goths end up with university degrees and jobs in the professions or creative industries.

A report in The Herald today suggests there may be a valuable lesson to be learned from the Luke Mitchell[*] case, but it has nothing to do with goths. When forensic psychologist Dr Kathy Charles of Glasgow Caledonian University studied 700 12 to 15-year-olds in the west of Scotland, she expected to find that those interested in goth culture and the occult were more likely to go on to commit serious offences.

So, are there links between anything and deliquency?

Boys (and girls) who are prone to showing off to the opposite sex and adopting multiple partners are the most likely to become serious and violent offenders. Commentators and policy-makers might have done better to focus on the fact that Luke Mitchell was already showing signs of becoming a serious sexual predator when he murdered Jodi Jones.

It should be pointed out that this is correlation, not causation, by the way. The bad kids get more sex. Charles also noted hostility to one's own sex as a factor (are there no gay delinquents?). The newspaper reports also do not say if the children were self-reporting their own delinquent behaviour, or whether Dr. Charles' work was based on criminal cases. If the former, it's known that teenagers exaggerate to make themselves look harder (and so more sexually attractive?). Luke Mitchell himself claimed to smoke enough cannabis to knock an old hippy out for several months. Charles also pointed out that the same sexual aggression could also lead to high acheivement in those with the aptitude to express it through other means.

Note:At the trial of Luke Mitchell, the teenager given life after murdering his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi Jones in July 2003 in Midlothian, his fascination with Goth culture and heavy metal were prominent factors in the prosecution. But it was also revealed that he had been seeing another girl at the same time as Jodi and that he had had a number of sexual partners.

Orkney kids speak out.

Scotland: Several of the children snatched from their homes by social workers convinced they were the victims of a vast Satanic conspiracy have spoken out about their experiences. Nine children were taken from their homes in South Ronaldsay, Orkney, in 1991. Now adults, they are critical of their treatment by social workers who were determined to make the children support their preconceptions.

But one of the W family, May, has said the questioning presupposed the answer; that there was abuse taking place.

She said: Eventually you would break down, after an hour or so of saying: 'no, this never happened. I don't remember it. I don't even know what you are talking about'.

I can't imagine how I got out of the room if I didn't say 'yes', but I don't remember saying 'yes' to anything.

Another victim, Alex, told the BBC about how the social workers became desperate to get the result they wanted, refusing to take no for an answer.

But at lease one of the social workers involved cannot see what she did wrong, insisting that of course both the children and their families would say that nothing happened.

A documentary, Accused: the story of the Orkney Child Abuse scandal will be shown on BBC2 Scotland tonight at 9pm.

August 18, 2006

Bargain of the Day: free loony fundie nonsense!

Noel Black of Seattle newspaper The Stranger has discovered how to get free stuff out of Focus on the Family, thereby depriving them of money.

Few people know that Focus on the Family—the powerful evangelical Christian para-church based in Colorado Springs—will give you, absolutely free of charge, books, CDs, and DVDs. Usually people pay for these products, and the millions of dollars raised helps Focus on the Family produce yet more books and CDs featuring Dr. James Dobson and other Focus "experts." (Focus on the Family's experts, when they're not chatting on the phone with Karl Rove, run around the country teaching people how to stop being so gay and when it's appropriate to kick their kids' asses.)

Not only does ordering free stuff from Focus on the Family—sent to myself or people I don't like—satisfy a deeply juvenile impulse, it has the added benefit of taking money directly out of homo-hater Dobson's pocket. The one drawback is that getting free shit from Focus on the Family is a tad time consuming and a bit tricky, but it's well worth the effort.

Heaven knows I'm miserable now

What with war, disasters and a dubious terrorist threat, you'd think the newspapers would have plenty to write about. But the Daily Mail has us convinced: the burning issue of the day is that some teenagers wear lots of black, listen to depressing music and a minority of those have serious problems. Yep, the Goth-hunting season is open once more and it's the Spooky Kids in Sarah Sands' gunsight.

August 17, 2006

Another good Christian

United States: The leader of the Oregon Christian Coalition has admitted sexually abusing three underage girls in a recently released police report.

But a local Police Department report released as part of a lawsuit said Beres readily admitted sexually touching one girl when she was 13 or 14 years old.

Beres also acknowledged sexually touching a 16- or 17-year-old friend of his daughter in 1976 or 1977...

In a telephone call with an investigator, Beres made admissions to three separate victims at three different times, the police report said. All involved underage females. The offenses ranged from kissing to touching the breast of an underage girl.

Beres insists that his intent was playful. Fortunately for him, a statute of limitations means he won't be charged in connection with the allegations.

August 2, 2006

Letters: The HUMAN PARADIGM

A common use of the contact form is to draw my attention to loony fundie sites I might have missed. Very occasionally, and for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, my attention is drawn to loony fundie sites by the loony fundies themselves. Take this missive, which contains a load of stuff from Behold! The Age of Man the Choicemaker by James Baxter. I will only bother with the first part, enough to give you a taste.

Consider:
The missing element in every human 'solution' is
an accurate definition of the creature.

The way we define 'human' determines our view
of self, others, relationships, institutions, life, and
future. Important? Only the Creator who made us
in His own image is qualified to define us accurately.
Choose wisely...there are results.

In an effort to diminish the multiple and persistent
dangers and abuses which have characterized the
affairs of man in his every Age, and to assist in the
requisite search for human identity, it is essential to
perceive and specify that distinction which naturally
and most uniquely defines the human being. Because
definitions rule in the minds, behaviors, and institutions
of men, we can be confident that delineating and com-
municating that quality will assist the process of resolu-
tion and the courageous ascension to which man is
called. As Americans of the 21st Century, we are oblig-
ed and privileged to join our forebears and participate
in this continuing paradigm proclamation.

Letters: Sumatra Tsunami

As well as providing a somewhat challenging comment recently, 'reidh' also corresponded via the contact form, supplying an original contribution to The Great Tsunami Conspiracy List. I reprint it here, so that I can link to it from the list:

I think it is entirely within the realm of both possible, and feasible, as well as plausable, that the great shift in the shelf causing that tsunami, could have been triggered by already in place horizontal oil drill holes, paralleling the plate overlap line. Oil Companies do not advertise it NOW, but they have been horizontally drilling into deposits and fields for decades. They also have steam and lubricating mud injection capabilities. They also take LNG and inject it into drill sites and use it to wash the traces of oil off the interior walls of oil deposits underground. Now, the Oil Companies may have no interest in triggering earthquakes through induced fault slippage, or they may have. But some foreign world order might have a profound interest, not only experimentally, but to bring chaos upon a large Muslim (read, potential terrorist support region) populated area. Sure didn't Clinton and Bush (former project mgr with Zapata Oil Exploration Co.) look splendid handing out the big bucks from america? A perfect cover. Anyway, call me loopified, but thats my opinion and i'm stikin' intuit.

From:Evangelist Lindy Mike(Widow).

Nigeria: God seems to be continuing to make life hard for His most devoted followers, inflicting terrible illnesses and criminal families upon them, forcing them to become lowly and despised spammers in desparation. Today's example is the third time I've seen that bizarre phrase Calvarygreetings.

August 1, 2006

Bargain of the Day: Holy Toast!

Holy images on mundane objects are regularly featured on Bargain of the Day, including the infamous Virgin Mary toast, but today, we offer you the opportunity to experience the miracle for yourself with this miracle bread stamper - Press the stamper into an ordinary slice of bread, roast it, and behold a miracle!.